Age Verification Trial for Online Users Sparks Privacy Concerns About Data Collection

The social media ban for under 16s is due to be in place by the end of the year in Australia.

In this photo illustration, social media networking apps are displayed on a phone screen with the Australian flag displayed in the background in Melbourne, Australia on Nov. 30, 2024. Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images

The Australian government’s Age Assurance Technology Trial report has sparked privacy concerns and fears big tech will retain data.

The technology trial was released by the Australian government on Sept. 1 ahead of the social media ban for children under 16.

The technology trial report involved 48 companies, including big tech participants such as Apple, Google, SnapChat, TikTok and Meta.

It found that age verification works, but did not endorse any particular technology.

Macquarie University Senior Lecturer in Computer Science Hassan Asghar said he was concerned about some of the “significant privacy and security issues” that need more discussion.

“Take age verification using government documents like driver’s licenses and passports—we’re already familiar with this through Service NSW’s ‘100 point check,’” he said.

“But when we expand this to social media platforms, we’re suddenly asking people to share their most sensitive documents with many more companies.”

Will Tech Companies Delete the Data?

Asghar said tech companies may not delete the data provided to them.

“Even though these companies aren’t supposed to keep our documents after checking them, it’s really hard to verify whether their processes are actually secure enough to properly delete everything once they’ve confirmed our age,” he said.

He also said age estimation using face recognition and machine learning brought its own set of problems.

“We already know face recognition isn’t perfectly accurate, and since these technologies are proprietary, it’s nearly impossible to objectively measure how well they work or ensure our facial images and videos are actually being securely deleted from their databases,” he said.

“But the more concerning approaches are age inference and successive validation, which could fundamentally change how we experience the internet.”

Age interference works by watching what we do online over long periods to guess our age, essentially encouraging tech companies to constantly monitor our digital behaviour.

“That’s a pretty significant shift toward surveillance,” he said.

Building Tools Able to Retrace Actions

The report (pdf) raised “concerning evidence” that some service providers were over-anticipating future needs of regulators about providing personal information for future investigations.

“Some providers were found to be building tools to enable regulators, law enforcement or coroners to retrace the actions taken by individuals to verify their age, which could lead to increased risk of privacy breaches due to unnecessary and disproportionate collection and retention of data,” the report said.

The report also warned about over-surveillance and data retention.

“While many systems are designed with privacy in mind, concerns remain around persistent activity logging, data retention, and the potential for over-surveillance,” the report said.

Social Media Ban Could be ‘Problematic’: Associate Professor

The technology trial is being undertaken by industry.

University of Newcastle Associate Professor of Sociology Julia Coffey said the Age Assurance Technology Trial Report showed just how complex, difficult and problematic this ban would be to implement.

Coffey said the report was clear that the capabilities of age estimation contained a large margin for error.

She said this meant other methods needed to be used in tandem with facial verification tools, like using data provided by third parties such as “banks, schools or health care providers.”

She said this “may not be kept private by a platform.”

“Australia’s social media ban for teens was always impractical, and missed the point—which is the need to find ways to make platforms responsible for the harms that occur through using them,” she said.

“This report only provides more evidence that the ban will be imprecise, problematic, and ultimately untenable.”

Australian Payments Plus Welcomes Report

Australian Payments Plus (AP+) welcomed the release of the Age Assurance Technology Trial report.

AP+ has developed a digital identity solution that works via Australia’s four major banks to verify identity.

The bank confirms the individual’s age by providing a simple yes or no answer without sharing date of birth.

AP+ said their technology was assessed at the “highest level of technology readiness” as part of the trial.

ConnectID Managing Director Andrew Black said verifying age online has often meant trade-offs between accuracy, safety, and privacy.

“When considering how we implement age verification, it’s important we don’t introduce new privacy risks for young Australians,” he said.

He highlighted the advantage of ConnectID confirming identity without handing over more personal data to the technology companies.

“By initially working through Australia’s four major banks, ConnectID offers broad citizen coverage and allows people to confirm only what’s needed—such as whether they’re over 16—without handing over sensitive personal data,” Black said.